Chandigarh, August 3
The Punjab Government would setup 21 English medium model senior secondary rural schools in educationally backward blocks of seven districts in the state to impart quality education to the under privileged rural students.The Education Minister Dr. Upinderjit Kaur, here today said that these 21 blocks were from Malwa region where this centrally sponsored project would be initially started. The Punjab government had framed a plan to setup three such schools in Bathinda, two in Muktsar, five in Mansa, one in Patiala, three in Sangrur, six in Ferozepur and one in Tarn Taran. "Our effort is to expand access to quality secondary education as there is a need to have schools with high standards of education for talented rural children, who may not be in a position to access quality schools in urban areas", she added.She further added that promoting affordable, modern and quality education is the need of the hour. "Moreover, education is the first step towards overall progress of a nation and good school education provides a strong base for a student in further achieving a bigger goal of higher education. Without quality school education, there can’t be quality higher studies", she stated.The level of development of a nation is directly proportional to its literacy rate. And since the formative years of the child are spent in the schools, foremost attention will be given to the quality of education. Also as universalisation of elementary education had become a Constitutional mandate, it is absolutely essential to push this vision forward to move towards universalisation of secondary education also, she said.The Minister added that the Centre would provide Rs. 3 crore to develop infrastructure in a model school in addition to Rs. 75 lakh annual fund to cover the recurring expenses. The Central government would bear 75 per cent of the recurring and non-recurring expenditure, and the remaining amount would be borne by the state. However, land for the schools would be provided by the state government.Education Minister explained that the schools with English language as medium of instruction including compulsory Punjabi, would run classes from VI to XII and would be affiliated to the Centre Board of School Education (CBSE). She clarified that a proposal in this regard had already been cleared by the Union Government and hoped that such schools would improve the standard of education in the state.In order to supervise the functioning of these schools, the Minister added that the State Government would set up District level and State level monitoring Committees. These model schools would be provided adequate infrastructure and required facilities, at least of the standard with stipulations on pupil-teacher ratio, ICT usage, congenial educational environment, appropriate curriculum and emphasis on output and outcome, she said.She emphasised that education provided in the Model school would be holistic and integral touching upon physical, emotional and aesthetic development in addition to academics. Necessary infrastructure would be provided in such schools not only for satisfying teaching needs, but for the sports, recreation and co-curricular activities also and these schools would set standards of excellence for other schools in the area.The Minister added that the schools would be setup on Kendriya Vidayalaya template and would also have board and lodging facilities for girl students. The admissions to these schools would be through a common selection test to take in 1,000 students in each unit. Dr. Upinderjit Kaur further said that another objective of these schools would be to provide a secondary school within radius of 5 KMs and a higher secondary school within a distance of 7-8 KMs of every habitation. The access to secondary education would be universalised. Not only universal enrolment, but universal retention and satisfactory quality of learning would be the priority.
The Punjab Government would setup 21 English medium model senior secondary rural schools in educationally backward blocks of seven districts in the state to impart quality education to the under privileged rural students.The Education Minister Dr. Upinderjit Kaur, here today said that these 21 blocks were from Malwa region where this centrally sponsored project would be initially started. The Punjab government had framed a plan to setup three such schools in Bathinda, two in Muktsar, five in Mansa, one in Patiala, three in Sangrur, six in Ferozepur and one in Tarn Taran. "Our effort is to expand access to quality secondary education as there is a need to have schools with high standards of education for talented rural children, who may not be in a position to access quality schools in urban areas", she added.She further added that promoting affordable, modern and quality education is the need of the hour. "Moreover, education is the first step towards overall progress of a nation and good school education provides a strong base for a student in further achieving a bigger goal of higher education. Without quality school education, there can’t be quality higher studies", she stated.The level of development of a nation is directly proportional to its literacy rate. And since the formative years of the child are spent in the schools, foremost attention will be given to the quality of education. Also as universalisation of elementary education had become a Constitutional mandate, it is absolutely essential to push this vision forward to move towards universalisation of secondary education also, she said.The Minister added that the Centre would provide Rs. 3 crore to develop infrastructure in a model school in addition to Rs. 75 lakh annual fund to cover the recurring expenses. The Central government would bear 75 per cent of the recurring and non-recurring expenditure, and the remaining amount would be borne by the state. However, land for the schools would be provided by the state government.Education Minister explained that the schools with English language as medium of instruction including compulsory Punjabi, would run classes from VI to XII and would be affiliated to the Centre Board of School Education (CBSE). She clarified that a proposal in this regard had already been cleared by the Union Government and hoped that such schools would improve the standard of education in the state.In order to supervise the functioning of these schools, the Minister added that the State Government would set up District level and State level monitoring Committees. These model schools would be provided adequate infrastructure and required facilities, at least of the standard with stipulations on pupil-teacher ratio, ICT usage, congenial educational environment, appropriate curriculum and emphasis on output and outcome, she said.She emphasised that education provided in the Model school would be holistic and integral touching upon physical, emotional and aesthetic development in addition to academics. Necessary infrastructure would be provided in such schools not only for satisfying teaching needs, but for the sports, recreation and co-curricular activities also and these schools would set standards of excellence for other schools in the area.The Minister added that the schools would be setup on Kendriya Vidayalaya template and would also have board and lodging facilities for girl students. The admissions to these schools would be through a common selection test to take in 1,000 students in each unit. Dr. Upinderjit Kaur further said that another objective of these schools would be to provide a secondary school within radius of 5 KMs and a higher secondary school within a distance of 7-8 KMs of every habitation. The access to secondary education would be universalised. Not only universal enrolment, but universal retention and satisfactory quality of learning would be the priority.
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